My GPS Camera Phone

I’m not big on giving out free advertising for the big box retailers, but this is a case of exceptional marketing that cannot go unnoticed.

OfficeMax® has this cool little online thing that lets you upload an image and place it in the body of a dancing elf. Yes, it is totally cheesy, but it made me laugh a few times. Click to see Gumby in all his elfin glory.

If you are susceptible to simple humor (like I am) and you made one of your own, share the link in the comments.

Farewell, November! Now move along, Santa needs to move in for a few weeks.

Expansion on an article originally published at 99 Bloggers

Simply opening a photo and changing the color mode to grayscale might be the most efficient way to get from Point A to Point B, though it’s not always the best. The shades are more gray and washed-out, often resulting in a flat and uninteresting image. The kicker is that once you’ve removed the color information, it’s gone for good, along with any color adjustment options. While this works and is an acceptable way to make a black-and-white image, it can be done better.

To start off, I’ll be opening an image in Adobe Photoshop®. Duplicate the master layer and then set visibility to the copy. Instead of going straight for the Mode->Grayscale menu option, try going to Adjustments->Desaturate. The image turns into what appears to be a grayscale image, yet the color mode (RGB) is retained. More data means better quality, which is obvious in a side-by-side comparison. The Mode->Grayscale conversion method results in a lighter image as seen on the left, while the desaturated photo on the right holds on to more of the darker tones.

If you’re using Picasa2, simply open the image, select the “Effects” tab and then “Saturation.” Move the slider all the way to the left to desaturate the image. If this isn’t to your liking later on, no worries – Picasa2 saves a backup of the original in case you ever want to go back.

For GIMP 2 users: After duplicating the original image layer, go to Colors->Desaturate, and then select “Lightness,” “Luminosity” or “Average” based on what result you prefer. Apply this to the copied layer only and the color layer will remain untouched.

Personally, I like to keep one working version of an image if possible. Using the desaturation method accommodates this preference nicely by keeping the color image intact, allowing me the luxury of having a color layer and a grayscale layer. Since there’s color information still in the photo, I can apply photo filters, adjust hue/saturation, select color or any number of things that would not be available had I used the Mode->Grayscale option. This way, I can always go back and change something in the color layer if the first try doesn’t work, without having to search for a copy of the master source file or start over from scratch.

You could also use adjustment layers, but that’s another post.

If you need to print and the job doesn’t call for 4-color, simply open the desaturated image, change the mode to grayscale, then save as another file. The gray levels are nearly untouched, resulting in a better black-and-white image.

Increasing efficiency and usability in your imaging workflow is important and this is only ONE way to accomplish this task. Do you have a preferred method?

Hello WW readers! My current Wordless Wednesday is here. I accidentally registered with last week’s image (this post)! Thanks for visiting!

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After crossing my fingers, I’ve finally managed to upgrade WordPress to 2.3.1 from 2.2.2. It was scary, but everything seemed to go well. That is, until someone left a comment that kicked off a series of undeliverable e-mails.

Apparently, there’s this php mail thing that doesn’t allow WordPress to send mail with “nobody” as the sender. That means when a comment is left and people are subscribed to that post, the subscribers don’t get the comment e-mails. Why? No clue. It worked fine before the upgrade. I think I may have to go back a version on the plugin. Hopefully, this works.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by and thanks to Dan for making my day by announcing that I was the closest guesser in his latest installment of Filtered Foto Friday. More good stuff on the way.

edit: OK, I give up for the night. If you subscribed to any posts, you will not be getting any e-mails because I’ve deactivated the subscribe plugin. Nighty night.

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What happens when you take a photo of the screen of your digital camera? This.

While at the park on Sunday, I was armed with both the Sony Cybershot and the camera phone. I had nothing to show for the time we were there and that was about two hours. As I was fiddling with the Sony, I got a phone call. After hanging up, it just sort of happened and I’d have to say the results are interesting. Sure, you could probably do this in Photoshop, but I liken this to analog. It’s more authentic and there’s less processing involved. If you look closely, you can see the centering marks on the Sony display.

Crop and levels adjusted in Photoshop CS.

There’s this giant Sweetgum tree in the yard that sheds it’s leaves every Fall. It’s a beautiful tree that’s survived a major beating from the hurricanes a few years ago. It was given a healthy trimming by high winds, but all of the limbs landed in my back yard, leaving me a lot of cleanup work. In spite of the beauty and my admiration of it’s resiliency, I have three major problems with this tree:

1. It drops all of the leaves every year
2. It drops “spiky dingleball fruits” that are capable of impaling your foot
3. It drops pollen-covered, petal-less blooms everywhere

This tree pretty much sucks. However, it is a nice looking tree, providing a lot of shade in my yard. And cutting it down would run me about $1,500 USD. I’m on the fence with what to do about it, but for now it shall live and I will continue happily raking up this mess three times a year. I have to admit, though, that even the dead leaves are attractive in their own way. That sneaky Mother Nature…preservation through beauty.

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Aside from all of the dying air potato vines, a sure sign of cool weather is the blooming of the elephant ears around the yard. These late blooming perennials, also know as Alocasia Macrorrhiza, are scattered throughout the yard and they often survive the winter fairly well. While the leaves are sensitive to the freezes, the underground bulb is quite hardy and will quickly replace any damaged leaves.

This is the beauty of the house I moved into. It was built in 1962-ish and all of the trees and plants are well-established. These elephant ears crop up everywhere, often in surprising places (like directly underneath the gutter drain – it takes a beating but refuses to die!). They’re just another testament to the unwillingness of nature to give in.

More information on Alocasia macrorrhiza

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